Speedbird59
the LH sheme is only a part sponsorship-they help you to arrange the required loan. If they take you on after the training part of your wage gets deducted to pay back some of it (about half as far as I know). In case they don't take you on it's all yours, but of course you can look elsewhere for work. The "full" cadet scheme mentioned here only came in quite recently, and might indeed only be offered to Germans.
Be careful though. LH did a lot of commercials and even a TV programme saying how desperate they are for pilots. All they really seemed to be after was paying customers to sign up for their courses, they are not the cheapest and it is part of their business now so they are keen to make money...(in the privatization process in the early 90s the unprofitable flying school was closed down for a while).
But just how many pilots do they really need? I did contact them a while back (me: German citizen whith a UK ATP) but got the reply that they don't need any pilots at the moment or for the near future. So I guess you have to make up your own mind as to what they are after--your body or just your money?
Good luck and happy flying.